steve stevens or senior advisor for middle east initiatives. he has taught at columbia. he is extensively published, has also directed the center for democracy and civil studies and civil society at georgetown university. he is a terrific asset to the institute. this project is one that is driven by syria with assistance, technical assistance and other kinds of assistance from the institute and sister institution in germany. it is very important that these kinds of efforts be driven by local populations, things that are handed down from the united states that typically don't work all that well and so we are very pleased that you're all here. i hope you have lots of questions and steve if i could turn this over to you. >> thank you very much gem for opening this morning and let me add my welcome. we are delighted to see you while here this morning. it's going to be of very a very very interesting conversation about syria after assad and the challenges of managing a post-assad transition. as jim mentioned, this event this morning is in many ways the culmination of a projec